Former Obama Official Ensnared in Financial Impropriety in NY Mayor’s Race

Former Obama administration official and New York City mayoral hopeful Adolfo Carrión may have violated New York’s state election laws, according to the New York Daily News.

Carrión created a PAC that received $172,000 in contributions from developers and other businesses with dealings in the Bronx while serving as borough president.

Carrion’s committee made cash payments of $500 — $15,800 in all — but didn’t specify what the money was for, records obtained by the News show.

The fund spent another $3,380 on unspecified “expenses” and $2,789 more to pay off a credit card bill, again without listing the charges that were incurred.

Board of Elections spokesman Tom Connolly said it appears that the PAC violated laws that forbid political committees from distributing more than $100 in cash and that require them to detail the purpose of all spending over $50.

The PAC was created “to support candidates and causes that promote good government,” but only gave 13 percent to candidates. The rest of the money was spent on meals, airline tickets, hotels, and other unspecified expenses.

This is not the first time Carrión has been involved in shady campaign finance dealings.

Another of his committees “ran up $30,000 on items such as travel to Puerto Rico and Disney World not related to his borough president campaign. One of the expenses cited was an eight-dollar McDonalds bill. In 2007, the Campaign Finance Board found he broke the rules and fined him $6,875,” according to the Daily News.

Update (5:31 p.m.): A previous version of this article stated that Carrión is a Democrat; he left the Democratic Party in late 2012, and is running for mayor as an independent candidate. Carrión was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the director of the Office of Urban Affairs and served in that role from 2009 to 2010.